The bits of stuff that fall in the cracks between Life, Music and outrageous fortune.         November   Close this window to return to Mike Rudd & Bill Putt's Stop Press   The Moody Blues concert 26.11.11 - I have to point out from the start that I'm not really a Moody Blues' fan. I lost interest in them after Go Now, which is one of the more memorable 3/4 pop songs to emerge from the London pop scene in the early '60s. Not that Knights In White Satin didn't make an impression, but after Go Now the band seemed to degenerate into a bunch of try-hards with spivvy moustaches and pressed jeans and their music seemed to lack any passion. Nevertheless, when I was offered a seat at the Palais to see them strut their stuff I figured it could be an interesting enough evening, even if only to measure their approach as an enduring and successful international band against Spectrum's own modest efforts. Our seats were upstairs, which, at The (sadly crumbling) Palais, is on the same scale as downstairs, but the PA was set-up to effectively service only the stalls, so the sound we got was very much second-hand and we lost 90% of the lyrics. And 90% of the patter, although there was very little of that until the second half of the show. Justin Hayward certainly seems to take himself pretty seriously and is keen to prove himself as an adequate guitarist as well as a distinctive vocalist and presumably the band's songwriter. This led to a major miscalculation (to my mind) when they did finally arrive at KIWS. The recording we're all familiar with has a blandly strummed acoustic guitar which is neither here nor there, but Justin ramped it up with a rejigged guitar part that threatened to overwhelm the simplicity of the vocal line. Pretty unnecessary, even if you're bored with playing it for the millionth time, but having said that, I doubt that most of the audience even noticed it. Despite the clunkiness of the earlier material in the first half and the mystifying addition of a second drummer (!) the bulk of the crowd was totally thrilled with the show. They would've been less thrilled with the one-size-fits-all security that had the audience being squeezed through a blender at nought miles an hour just to get in the front doors. I'm guessing that it's mandatory, but given the relative age of the audience I felt it was heavy-handed and unnecessarily time consuming. I noticed the same thing at the Steely Dan / Stevie Winwood Rochford Winery concert. We know the State govt. has problems with the young ferals on King St, but there's no need to visit retribution on civilised people who are old enough to be their grandparents.   At last! The George Harrison movie! 10.11.11 - It was the real 9/11 yesterday, so I suppose something significant had to happen. The weather was looking ominous as I sped into town, but the change hadn't arrived and it was still pretty steamy. The plan was to meet Dr Wazz, Dick and Mary and Dave and Maree at the Nova in Carlton at 7.00, buy the tickets and find somewhere to eat before the show's start at 8.45. After some preliminary confusion we met up with Dave and Maree at Ti Amo, had a cheerfully noisy meal and went back to the Nova - where we were met with a long-ish queue waiting to get into Cinema 5. At round three and a half hours in length it's quite a commitment, particularly parking and bladder-wise and it's no snip at $25.00 a ticket, so be warned. Having said that though, I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. I'm a Beatles nut, as was the rest of the group, so we all enjoyed it, although Dick thought it a bit long. There weren't any real surprises, although I wasn't familiar with Olivia, George's second wife. (She was good value). I was expecting to be annoyed by Eric Clapton, but I wasn't at all, (maybe I'll read his biography now), and I'm in the Paul's-been-maligned-enough camp so he didn't annoy me either. Ringo was cool, although his goatee was, well, singular. The theatre remained hot and steamy, even after the intermission, so it was a relief to eventually emerge into the rain - at 12.45. The sessions are erratic, but go and see it. Or buy the DVD. If a tear doesn't come to your eye, you were asleep..     back to the top